Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi can anyone tell me if its possible to fit a 2.9 granada engine into a minor if so is there much modifying needed to get it in there with the granada automatic box fitted aswell or is there a shorter ford gearbox that will match up to the engine please as we have seen this engine & box & are thinking of purchasing it but if it won't fit then there is no point in buying it . thanks

Not speaking from any experience of trying, but the Cologne v6 is a big old lump! I suspect fitting it to a Minor would involve a considerable amount of cutting, re-shaping of the bulkhead and lots of other work besides. As for the gearbox, if it doesn't fit then you could probably get a Ford type 9 box that'll mate up to the engine from a 2.8 v6 Capri.

To be honest, if you're determined to have 150bhp in a Minor (about what the Granada engine will give you), then the K-Series/Zetec route would give a far neater end result, less weight, lower fuel consumption and less butchery of the car. Obviously if you were to have this much power in a Minor from any engine, the front brakes and rear axle would have to be changed for items able to cope.

Hi Chris, thanks for your advice ,I had thought the same myself but it just looked so tempting &very true what you said it is a fair lump of an engine ,I think k series or zetec like you say is going to be the route we have to go down cheers

That's a big/heavy engine compared to some of the alternatives.

The K-series engine offers almost unbeatable power to weight, (lighter than an A-series and can take a good tune). Old-school modders were using Fiat/Alpha/Lancia RWD twin-cam engines (e.g. from Fiat Mirafiore), which can be used with their mating gearbox or even Ford type 9 5 speed. The Fiat stuff is getting rare due to lack of remaining donors.
Modern school would give you a wide choice, but best is to go with what is used in kit cars as there is a big supplier market supporting engine re-application e.g. Ford Zetec.
Depending on your budget you can get quite a lot 'off the shelf' for Minor upgrades.

For any auto box you are likely to have to do serious cut-n-shut work on the shell around the transmission tunnel.
If you're after 150+ horses then typical way to go would be scratch built chassis. The Minor shell can take a fair amount of torque if it's in good shape, and more if it's reinforced but it wasn't designed for 4000Nm prop torque.

I'd highly recommend the Nissan a14 motor and transmission. Don't know how easy these are to find in the uk